Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1887-09-22
CIGARATAKERS WAGES.
Exclusive Cubaus and Spaniards and vim
bic Germans and Bohemians.

/ GiNT-AGt VI \ IN FMS w rs
/ Exclusive Cubaus and spaniards and Sim
bic Germans and Bohemians.
There are two classes of cigarmakers
/ IN New York, those who DO what is
called Spanish work and those who
work with domestic tobaccOs. The
men who are on Spanish work are
/ Cubans and Spaniards. some 700 in all.
1 They object TO having anybody else in
{ their shops, and if cigarmaker Of
another nationality should get job
there they would make it so UNI
pleasant for him that he would have to
leave. In this they are sustained by
] their employers, who are Cubans or
| Spanjards themselves, and believe
| that Cubans and Spaniards are the
only people who know how To make
| the best cigars. They are born with a
| cigarette in their mouths, and they die
with a cigar between their teeth.
The only tobacco used ia some of
| the Spanish workshops is imported,
while others use both Havana and
| Key West tobacco, and a grade of Key
| West cigars i'm which there is a fair
amount OF domestic tobacco, more than
/ they acknowledge. All their cigars are
| high-priced, and the men earn twice
rs much u thousand as is paid to
other cigar-makers. 1t is u common
| thing for them 10 give out work at $50
and $50 u thousand, and a cigarmaker
who is quick enough to turn out n
thousand of that grade in a week
makes good wages. They have grades
| of cigars for which 500 and more is
| paid thousand A thousand of such
cigars are worth several hundred
dollars, and they are not often manu-
featured. The high price, paid make
! the Cuban cigarmakcrs regard them
selves as the aristocrat- OF the trade,
| though there is no such difference in
wares rs the scale of prices per
| thousand would seem to show. 4
good cigarmaker can make two
thousand $3.50 cigars while a Cuban is
making one thousand Sl7or $40 cigars.
There is jealousy and rivalry in the
Cuban shops among the rapid cigar
makers. In every shop there are two
or three who regard themselves as the
best men. They have contests, and,
I the one who wins is pitted against the
best men of other shops. PerichU
Bettancourt has been regarded as the
best man for some time, though there
are others who dispute the title, On
good work he could make $40 week
and more if he kept ut it steadily, and
it is even said of him that he could
make thousand 500 cigars a wccS
These are wages that no maker of
cheap cigars could ever make, as he
would nave to turn out a thousand
cigars a day TO do it.
The bulk Of the cigarmakers are
Germans and Bohemiaus, who turn out
cigars from s. thousand TO S2l.
These are the two extremes of ordinary
trade, though there are tenement-hOuse
cigars made as low rs 81, and an occa-
sioual mrder runs MP to $50 or more.
No union man makes cigars under 81 a
thousand, and that is the limit of price
in "a union shop. but there are 4 few
nun-mi0n shops that go lower. None
OF these cigars is made of imported to-
blcco, though many have Sumatra
wrappers or Havana filters 4 manu-
factureu tries to introduce some nm
ported tobacco, no matter what the
QUALIFY 0r character, that he may call
his cigars imported, though millions OF
cigars are marked imported where not
bit of the tobacco ever breathed salt
air before il reached New York. IL is
better to smoke cigar made through
out OF good domestic tobacco than of
poor imported, though there are not
many smokers who appreciate the truth
OF th'Ss